Deux-Montagnes students to be empowered to save lives

DEUX-MONTAGNES, QC, 22/04/08

The Advanced Coronary Treatment (ACT) Foundation, with Giant Tiger Stores Limited as lead community partner, and in partnership with the Quebec Ministry of Education, Recreation and Sport and the Ministry of Health and Social Services is launching the ACT High School CPR Program in Deux-Montagnes today. The launch will take place at 10:00 a.m. at Lake of Two Mountains High School, 2105 Guy Street.

More than 2,000 high school students from 11 high schools in the Laurentians will now be empowered to save lives every year. Thirty-three teachers have been trained as CPR instructors and will train their students using 320 mannequins donated to schools. The launch includes Sir-Wilfrid-Laurier School Board and Commission Scolaire de la Seigneurie-des-Mille-Îles. The students will take their life-saving skills to their current and future families and to the local community.

Eight in 10 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests occur at home. Research indicates that citizen CPR response can improve survival rates by almost fourfold. Empowering youth with CPR training as part of their high school education will increase citizen CPR response rates and save lives over the long term.

The ACT Foundation is a national charitable organization dedicated to establishing CPR as a mandatory program in every Canadian high school. The ACT High School CPR Program is built on ACT’s award-winning community-based model of partnerships and support. ACT raises funds for CPR mannequins for schools and guides schools in program set up.

Giant Tiger Stores Limited is the lead community partner in the Laurentians. With a donation of $3,300 per school, for a total donation of $48,000, this community retailer plays a key role in implementing the CPR Program in the region. “Giant Tiger is extremely proud to be sponsoring the ACT High School CPR Program in the region” says Normand Lupien, Giant Tiger Franchise Owner. “Giving back to the communities we serve is an important part of our mission. This program will help save lives in our communities and will provide invaluable education and empowerment to our youth” he added. “We are very proud to be part of this important and meaningful project.”

The Quebec government is a provincial partner of the ACT High School CPR Program. “I am pleased to support the implementation in Québec of the High School CPR Training Program established by the Advanced Coronary Treatment (ACT) Foundation of Canada,” says Philippe Couillard, Minister of Health and Social Services. “At a time when cardiovascular disease is one of the leading causes of death, it is encouraging to know that more and more Québec residents will receive basic training in how to react in situations that could otherwise prove fatal.”

Other key provincial partners are the J.W. McConnell Family Foundation and Sun Life Financial. Community partners with a provincial scope are Bell Canada, Hydro-Québec and Scotiabank.

“We are thrilled with the support of ACT’s partners,” says ACT Foundation Executive Director Sandra Clarke. “Without them, the Laurentians program would not be possible.”

To date, the ACT High School CPR Program has been implemented in over 193 Quebec high schools and approximately 65,000 students have been empowered to save lives. The ACT Foundation’s goal is to expand the CPR Program to an additional 400 Quebec schools. To help make this possible, ACT has secured a commitment of $600,000 from the Quebec government through its public / private funding partnership.

About the ACT Foundation

The ACT Foundation is an award-winning, national non-profit organization dedicated to promoting health and empowering Canadians to save lives. ACT is driving a national campaign to establish CPR as a mandatory program in every Canadian high school. ACT raises funds for CPR mannequins for schools and guides schools in program set up. The Foundation has already established the CPR program in over 1,200 high schools across Canada and over 900,000 youth have been trained to date. The Foundation and its core partners are winners of Imagine Canada’s “New Spirit of Community Partnership” Award. Core partners are companies in the research-based pharmaceutical industry: AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb Canada, Pfizer Canada and sanofi-aventis. They provide ACT’s sustaining funding and are committed to the Foundation’s national goal of promoting health and empowering youth to save lives.